By Maria NelsonShaved Brussels sprouts salad, with walnuts and Pecorino cheese, will alleviate your fear of the sprouts’ bitter taste.

Crunchy shaved Brussels sprouts, combined with salty and delicious, hard Pecorino and whole walnut halves are the basis for this easy-to-prepare salad that goes well as a starter, or on it’s own for a smaller meal.

Despite the fact that it’s January and many of you are likely watching your diets, I just couldn’t let the opportunity pass to share with you this simple and delicious gameday, tailgate recipe. You simply can never have too many recipes like this up your sleeve and you never know when you just might need something easy and delicious to prepare for well, let’s say a Super Bowl party or something. Ahem. Read more

There’s something about living in the Northwest that makes our winter weather seem a bit colder than what the thermometer says it should be.

By Maria Nelson

I’ve always thought that it had to do with the persistent and ever-present wet that seeps into the bones and refuses to leave. Dryer, colder temperatures often fail to affect me in the way wetter and slightly warmer ones typically do.

Without fail, every year after Thanksgiving, our family has reached its pumpkin saturation point.

By Maria Nelson

While growing up, it was fairly routine for my family to continue to serve pumpkin pie for the remainder of our holiday celebrations, and seeing how there were very few other pumpkin-flavored options available to us at the time, we were all thrilled to partake. It’s hard to believe it sometimes, but there was life before pumpkin-flavored lattes, pumpkin brittle and pumpkin-flavored mochi. Shocking, I know.

It goes without saying that one of the best things about living in Washington are the apples.

By Maria NelsonHarvest season is the perfect time to whip up a simple apple almond pie recipe.

We are the apple state, after all, and no self-respecting Washingtonian should be without at least one or two killer apple pie or apple whatever recipes up their sleeve. Considering it’s now the height of apple season around here, there really is no reason not to get in the kitchen and get crackin’.

September seems always to be a time of change and contradiction, not quite fall, not quite summer.

Coconut Curry Soup

Warm and sunny days are often juxtaposed with cool and ever quickly-arriving evenings. This change is evidenced in my kitchen as well. I find myself reaching for recipes that feature more squash, potatoes, beets and other root vegetables. All of my dishes seem to be touched with these ingredients lately.

To make it easier each year, I gravitate toward easy-to-throw-together meals originating with a slow-cooked main, so leftovers easily morph later in the week into quickly prepared meals using few, simple and delicious ingredients.

Kalua Pork is a family favorite and an absolutely wonderful way to make many great meals fast. Below are some recipes to help you answer that endlessly asked and panic-inducing question, “What’s for dinner?”

No matter who you are or where you live at one point or another during the dog days of summer, your mind will turn at some point toward grilling.
Regardless of what you cook, be it strictly vegetables or meat or some amalgamation of both, the undeniable allure of cooking over flame is a strong one.
Steak, grilled to crispy outer deliciousness with a meltingly soft interior is often, for us, the way to go. A naturally easy and delicious way to grill most always involves minimal prep of both meat and marinade, allowing the delicious flavors of both shine through.

Now that summer fruits are in season, if you are at all like me, you are clamoring to enjoy them any way you can.

Fruit consumption goes way up for us this time of year. We try to cram as much delicious fruit into each meal at breakfast, lunch and dinner, with fruit for snacks in between. In years past, I’ve always felt a little guilty about all the fruit we consume. It’s just so simple, so fresh and so incredibly delicious that I get a little lazy on the rest of the food options available to us.

With warmer, longer days comes the return of meals eaten al fresco. The highlight of our summertime dinner routine is eating outside as much as possible. Regardless of where we eat, on our deck, in the park or on the porch, the thrill of being outside relaxing and enjoying time together in the rarefied Northwest sun is wonderful.

There’s something about eating outside that just lowers the blood pressure, inviting us to slow down, be more present and enjoy the world around us in a way we don’t often have opportunity to do.